Recently read a couple of books recommended on the History board.

El Narco - history of cartels and drugs in Mexico. Interesting book but about a decade old so a bit dated on current happenings. Still a good read.

Skeletons of the Zahara - good survival story about a crew of American sailors who crashed in Western Africa. Didn't realize how common it was for Americans to end up in slavery there.

Tennozan: The Battle of Okinawa and the Atomic Bomb by George Feifer

Just finished A History of the Confederate Navy, the definitive history of the navy by an Italian college professor, Raimondo Luraghi. It was a best seller when it came out in Italian before being printed in English by the Naval Institute Press. HIghly recommended, he covers it all and well and talks engineering so a non-engineer gets it.

About to start Frank Vandiver's Ploughshares into Swords about Confederate industry and Josiah Gorgas.

Reading a lot of dead authors lately.

Roger Lowenstein's Ways and Means.

It profiles the financing of the Civil War and provides a lot of detail that is otherwise missed in analysis of the politics and military conflict. You really appreciate the nearly irrelevant nature of the Federal government prior to to Ft. Sumter and how many things changed or were instituted in response.

National Income Tax

Greatly expanded Federal Budget

Great innovation in marketing government securities to raise funds

The National Banking Act of 1853 basically killed the various alternatives to the U.S. dollar and made it the only appropriate means of exchange while instituting what is now considered the Federal Reserve System.

You also get a good look into the behavior of Lincoln's cabinet folks like Salmon Chase as well as a greater appreciation for Thaddeus Stevens.

Thanks for the recommendation. Historians usually are clueless when it comes to economics and, as a result, tend to ignore it. That's a mistake because economics either causes or greatly facilitates much of history.

By the way, my library has the book available as a Kindle download. The process to check it out was seamless and easy. Sometimes technology is truly great and amazing! (Sometimes the opposite, though.)

Lincoln was suprisingly well read on political economy, and you will get to his address to congress on Labor vs. Capital.

The book is very good about Whig party platform issues, which is a strange blend of progressive tactics (tariffs, federal infrastructure spending) and libertarian beliefs (small federal government and deference to congress, anti-expansion).

The confederate economic thought is hilariously bad when it is summed up.


Final funny point - The discussion of the total mistrust of confederate bills by Southern businessman delved into the how state banks would make their own currency as fall-back. The Bank of Louisiana's $10 "Dix Notes" (French word for ten ) were the most trusted form of exchange and became know as Dixie Notes and they were so prevelant that the South became known as "Dixie Land".

Great book and audio book. Amazing how much information was available and not known by the public.

Just finished Agatha Christie's first book which introduced Hercule Poirot- The Misterious Affair at Styles.

She got 25 pounds for it. Her next book got her 500 pounds!

Going to try to read all her books in order !

Devil in the White City

Finished "The Catcher was a Spy". It is the story of Moe Berg who played in MLB for a long time and then worked for the OSS in WW2. Then basically was a professional couch surfer. Interesting story about a rather unique guy.

And sticking with the theme of baseball and WW2, I read The Cloudbuster 9, which is centered around Ted Williams and other baseball players in the Navy V-5 Pre-Flight training program where they also played baseball against a variety of other teams. The author is the daughter of the bat boy/mascot for the team who later played minor league ball. Harder to recommend this one. Not bad but the author jumps around more than I would like and makes some claims that seem hard to support. It was interesting to read about the use of sports in the training(not just baseball).

Finished "Mission to the North" by Florence Jaffray Harriman. She was the US ambassador to Norway when WW2 broke out. She wrote the book in 1941 so its an interesting perspective from before when the dust settled. Some facts are not correct about German losses in Norway but this is understandable based on when it was written. She gives details about her time in Norway before the war and then of course details on running from the Germans with the royal family and making it to Sweden. Good bit of info on the SS City of Flint. Lots of prewar writing about Norweigian shipping, fishing, and culture.

I also found out that a US officer was killed in Norway by a German bomb. I hadn't realized that previously and it makes me curious what communication or response the US had to the Germans after that. Wikipedia noted that Goering did send a letter to the US a few days after it happened.

Did something different and read a book without knowing anything about it or the author, went in totally blind. Its "A Slave Holders Daughter" by Belle Kearney. It was published in 1900. I got an early (1900 but not first edition) printing and decided to give it a shot. Her father was a wealthy plantation owner in Mississippi who as you might gather from the title owned slaves. He lost most of his fortune during and right after the civil war.

Its an autobiography of her life up until that point. She became a key member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) and traveled extensively speaking and attending events. She was also involved in the women's suffrage movement. In addition to pushing for equal pay for women and voting rights, she views allowing women to vote as a means to further cement white supremacy. She laid quite a bit of the blame on the legality of alcohol in certain areas/counties/cities on black people.

She does seem to be a talented writer and you can feel her passion for the temperance movement coming on strong in her writing. If she was as good of a speaker as she was a writer, I can see why her services seemed to be in demand. Well after the book was published, she became the first women to be elected a Mississippi state senator.

Quote:

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If she was as good of a speaker as she was a writer,

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A key point. I have found poor writers who were great speakers on the subject, as well as any other combination of the two. A great writer and speaker is a pleasant experience to find.

You might also want to read Killers of the Dream by Lillian Smith.